Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Humanities Center Examines Continued Relevance of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ March 9

Friday, March 4, 2016, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Visual and Performing Arts

The Humanities Center in the College of Arts and Sciences continues its spring series with a discussion about the ongoing relevance of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” as a novel, play and film.

Kevin Maillard

Kevin Maillard

On Wednesday, March 9, Kevin Maillard, a professor in the College of Law, will present “To Kill a Mockingbird: From Jim Crow to Black Lives Matter” at 2 p.m. in Archbold Theatre at Syracuse Stage (820 East Genesee St.) The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Humanities Center at 315-443-7192.

Immediately following the event is a 3 p.m. performance of the Syracuse Stage production of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The matinee is open to the public; however, tickets are required. To purchase tickets ($30-$48 for adults and $18 for children), call the Syracuse Stage Box Office at 315-443-3275 or visit http://syracusestage.org.

The discussion is organized by Syracuse Stage, whose critically acclaimed production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” runs through Saturday, March 26.

“We are honored to partner with Syracuse Stage and Professor Maillard, who studies several of the key issues in Harper Lee’s iconic novel—issues such as race, sex, power and justice,” says Vivian May, director of the Humanities Center and associate professor of women’s and gender studies. “This discussion and Syracuse Stage’s production are timely and relevant. The fight for civil rights continues, and the arts are pivotal for engaging these questions and confronting inequality.”

The event follows the publication of “Go Set a Watchman” (Harper, 2015), Lee’s only other book and a kind of prequel to the original novel, and the author’s death last month at the age of 89.

Published in 1960, “To Kill a Mockingbird” deals with racial injustice in a fictitious Southern town. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year, turning the normally elusive author into a reluctant celebrity, and went on to sell more than 40 million copies.

The book’s success was reinforced by a popular 1962 film version, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, the small-town Southern lawyer who defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.

In 1991, Christopher Sergel published a stage adaptation that took more than 20 years to write, and that he continued to revise up until his death two years later. His adaptation is directed here by Timothy Bond, producing artistic director of Syracuse Stage.

A scene from the Syracuse Stage production of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (Photo by Mike Davis)

A scene from the Syracuse Stage production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Photo by Mike Davis)

“It’s a classic story of finding courage and pursuing justice,” says May, noting that the production opened a week after Lee’s death. “Within a portrait of small-town life during the Depression, we are offered a sobering look at Jim Crow race relations in the Deep South. This story remains germane to countless aspects of our current reality, as a community and as a nation.”

She credits Kyle Bass, who is introducing Maillard on March 9, for curating Syracuse Stage’s popular Wednesday@1 Lecture series, of which this event is a part. Bass is a drama instructor in the University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and is Syracuse Stage’s resident dramaturg.

Maillard is an expert in family law, Constitutional law, and popular culture. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Atlantic, and is co-editor of “Loving v. Virginia in a Post-Racial World” (Cambridge University Press, 2012). He earned a Ph.D. in political theory from The University of Michigan.

 

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Doctoral Candidate Wins Grant for Research on Infrastructure, Violence and Resistance in Pakistan
    Friday, August 1, 2025, By News Staff
  • Co-President of Disability Law Society Eyes Career in National Security Law in Washington
    Thursday, July 31, 2025, By Jordan Bruenger
  • Lender Center New York Event Gathers Wealth Gap Experts
    Wednesday, July 30, 2025, By Diane Stirling
  • After Tragedy, Newhouse Grad Rediscovers Her Voice Through Podcasting
    Wednesday, July 30, 2025, By Chris Velardi
  • Back-to-School Shopping: More Expensive and Less Variety of Back-to-School Items
    Tuesday, July 29, 2025, By Daryl Lovell

More In Arts & Culture

How New Words Enter Our Language: A Linguistics Expert Explains

From “yeet” to “social distancing,” new words and phrases constantly emerge and evolve in American English. But how do these neologisms—newly coined terms—gain acceptance and become part of mainstream dialect? We interviewed Christopher Green, associate professor of linguistics in the…

Art Museum Acquires Indian Scrolls Gifted by SUNY Professor

The University Art Museum has received a monumental gift of more than 80 traditional Indian patachitra scrolls, significantly expanding its collection of South Asian art and material culture. The scrolls were donated by Geraldine Forbes, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita at…

Architecture Students’ Project Selected for Royal Academy Exhibition

In a prestigious international honor, a project by three students from the School of Architecture has been selected for inclusion in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025, currently on view in London. The work, titled “Evolving an Urban Ecology,” was…

Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion

Bucking the trend of streaming music platforms and contrary to what one might expect of a member of his generation, musician Dan Cohen ’25 prefers listening to his favorite artists on compact disc (CD) and record players. His research and…

VPA Announces New Drama Department Chair

The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) has appointed Eleanor Holdridge as the new chair of the Department of Drama effective July 1. Holdridge comes to Syracuse University from the Catholic University of America, where she served as professor…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.